AZIN vs Heroku: The Modern BYOC Alternative

Heroku taught a generation of developers what deployment should feel like. git push heroku main and your app was live. Then Salesforce acquired it, removed the free tier, and transitioned Heroku to a sustaining engineering model. AZIN picks up where Heroku left off — same deployment simplicity, but your code runs on your own cloud infrastructure.

This comparison reflects where both platforms stand as of February 2026. The real question isn't which is better — it's how to carry Heroku's developer experience forward without repeating its mistakes.

#What happened to Heroku

Heroku transitioned to what Salesforce calls a 'sustaining engineering model' on February 6, 2026 — security and stability patches only, no new feature development and stopped selling Enterprise contracts to new customers. Heroku pioneered PaaS and proved that developers shouldn't need to SSH into servers to ship code. But under Salesforce ownership, the platform did not receive major new features while alternatives like Railway, Render, Fly.io, and AZIN emerged.

The timeline

• 2007 — Heroku founded. Supported Ruby only, later expanded to Node.js, Python, Java, and more.
• 2011 — Salesforce acquires Heroku for $212M. Development continues initially.
• 2022 (April) — Security incident exposes GitHub OAuth tokens across Heroku's user base.
• 2022 (August) — Heroku announces free tier removal, citing "fraud and abuse."
• 2022 (November) — Free dynos, free Postgres, and free Redis shut down. Mass exodus to Railway, Render, and Fly.io begins.
• 2024 — No major feature releases announced. Some pricing tiers unchanged since 2015.
• 2025 (June) — Major outage lasting 15+ hours affected dashboard, CLI, and deployed apps (per Heroku status page). Another 8.5-hour outage follows eight days later (per Heroku status page).
• 2026 (February) — Salesforce freezes all Heroku feature development. Shifts to "sustaining engineering model." Stops selling Enterprise contracts to new customers.

Nitin Bhat, Salesforce's SVP and GM of the Heroku Business Unit, confirmed the pivot: Salesforce is redirecting investment toward enterprise-grade AI. Heroku gets security patches and stability fixes.

For the full breakdown of what comes next, see our guide to Heroku alternatives.

#Quick comparison

#Key differences

Active development vs. maintenance mode

As of February 2026, Heroku has not announced new runtimes, regions, or integrations. The last meaningful feature update was the managed PostgreSQL service refresh — and Salesforce confirmed that was the final piece of new development.

AZIN is shipping actively. GCP BYOC is live today, with AWS and Azure on the roadmap. Preview environments and managed services are available today. Scale-to-zero is available on lttle.cloud (in early access). The platform is under active development with new features shipping regularly.

Shared infrastructure vs. your own cloud

Heroku runs your code on shared infrastructure managed by Salesforce. You don't choose where your data lives beyond "US" or "EU." You can't peer with your VPC, access your cloud provider's native services, or use cloud credits.

AZIN deploys to your GCP account today, with AWS and Azure on the roadmap. You own the infrastructure. Your data never leaves your cloud environment. You can use GCP for Startups credits toward compute costs. Need to deploy to europe-west4 or us-central1? GCP supports it, so AZIN supports it.

Legacy pricing vs. cloud-direct pricing

Heroku charges fixed per-dyno prices. A Standard-1X dyno costs $25/mo as of February 2026 for 512 MB of RAM. A Performance-M costs $250/mo as of February 2026 for 2.5 GB. These prices have remained the same since at least 2020.

AZIN separates the platform fee from compute costs. You pay your cloud provider directly for resources at your cloud provider's standard rates. At scale, cloud-direct pricing can differ significantly from Heroku's fixed dyno rates. For example, a 2 vCPU / 4 GB workload costs $250-500/mo on Heroku Performance dynos versus GCP cloud-direct pricing on GKE Autopilot (as of February 2026).

Heroku pricing based on published rates as of February 2026. AZIN costs vary by cloud provider and usage — see azin.run/pricing for current rates.

US/EU only vs. global deployment

Heroku offers two regions: United States and Europe. That's it. If your users are in Asia-Pacific, South America, or Africa, you're adding latency with every request.

AZIN supports every region available on GCP today — deploy to us-central1, europe-west4, asia-northeast1, or any other supported region. AWS and Azure regions are on the roadmap. Multi-region deployment is a configuration choice, not an Enterprise upgrade.

#Heroku concepts mapped to AZIN

If you're coming from Heroku, here's how familiar concepts translate.

#From Procfile to AZIN

Here's a typical Heroku app migrated to AZIN. The application code stays the same — only the deployment configuration changes.

Heroku Procfile:

# Procfile
web: gunicorn app:app --bind 0.0.0.0:$PORT
worker: celery -A tasks worker --loglevel=info
release: python manage.py migrate

Heroku add-ons (via CLI):

heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:standard-0
heroku addons:create heroku-redis:mini
heroku config:set SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key

AZIN equivalent:

# Connect your repo and deploy
# (AZIN CLI is planned — commands shown are illustrative)
azin init --cloud gcp --region europe-west4
 
# AZIN auto-detects your Procfile processes
# Web, worker, and release commands are picked up automatically
 
# Managed services are provisioned in YOUR GCP account
azin services add postgres --plan standard
azin services add redis --plan standard
 
# Environment variables
azin env set SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
 
# Deploy
azin deploy

The key difference: those Postgres and Redis instances run in your GCP account as Cloud SQL and Memorystore. You see them in your GCP console. You control the VPC, backup policies, and encryption settings. If you ever leave AZIN, the databases stay in your account.

#When Heroku still makes sense

Even in maintenance mode, there are scenarios where Heroku is the pragmatic choice.

• Existing apps that work fine. If your Heroku app is running, stable, and doesn't need new features, migration has a cost. Don't migrate for the sake of migrating.
• Heavy add-on dependencies. Heroku's 200+ add-on marketplace (as of February 2026) created tight integrations. If your app depends on specific add-ons that don't have easy equivalents, factor the migration cost.
• Salesforce ecosystem lock-in. If your organization runs on Salesforce and uses Heroku Connect for data sync, the switching cost is high.
• Simple hobby apps. A $7/mo Basic dyno with a $5/mo Postgres Mini is cheap and requires zero maintenance. For a personal blog or small tool, it works.

#When to choose AZIN

• Any new project. For new projects, a platform with active feature development provides more long-term flexibility.
• Compliance or data residency requirements. BYOC means data stays in your cloud account. GDPR, SOC 2, and HIPAA compliance are simpler when you own the infrastructure.
• Plans to scale. Heroku's fixed dyno pricing gets expensive fast. Performance-M ($250/mo) gives you 2.5 GB of RAM. The same resources on AWS or GCP typically cost less.
• Multi-region deployment. Heroku is US and EU only. AZIN supports all GCP regions today, with AWS and Azure on the roadmap.
• Cloud credits. GCP for Startups credits apply directly to AZIN deployments since compute runs in your GCP account.
• Active platform development. You want a platform that ships new features, not one that's frozen.

#Heroku: pros and cons

#AZIN: pros and cons

#Migration overview

Moving from Heroku to AZIN follows a straightforward process. Your application code typically needs zero changes — only the deployment target shifts.

Export your Heroku data

# Dump your Heroku Postgres database
heroku pg:backups:capture --app your-app
heroku pg:backups:download --app your-app
 
# Export environment variables
heroku config --app your-app --shell > .env.heroku
 
# List your current add-ons for reference
heroku addons --app your-app

Deploy on AZIN

# Initialize with your GCP account
# (AZIN CLI is planned — commands shown are illustrative)
azin init --cloud gcp --region europe-west4
 
# Import environment variables
azin env import .env.heroku
 
# Deploy — auto-detection handles the rest
azin deploy

Verify and cut over

Run both environments in parallel. Test the AZIN deployment against your production traffic. When verified, update DNS to point to AZIN. Decommission Heroku when you're confident.

For the full walkthrough including database migration, add-on replacement, and DNS cutover, see the Heroku migration guide.

#Frequently asked questions

#Related comparisons

• Migrate from Heroku to AZIN — Step-by-step migration guide with database, add-on, and DNS instructions
• AZIN vs Railway — How AZIN compares to the best developer experience in PaaS
• AZIN vs Render — AZIN vs the closest modern Heroku replacement
• AZIN vs Vercel — Full-stack BYOC vs the frontend cloud
• AZIN vs Fly.io — Managed BYOC vs global edge micro-VMs
• Deploy Rails with AZIN — Rails hosting on your own GCP account: Sidekiq workers, asset pipeline, Puma
• Best Heroku Alternatives in 2026 — Full guide with 9 platforms compared

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